The U.S. military prepared for months for Venezuela operation

Gen. Dan Caine, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at President Donald Trump’s news conference that U.S. forces had rehearsed their maneuvers for months, learning everything about Nicolás Maduro — where he was and what he ate, as well as details of his pets and the clothes he wore.

“We think, we develop, we train, we rehearse, we debrief, we rehearse again, and again,” Caine said, saying his forces were “set” by early December. “Not to get it right, but to ensure we cannot get it wrong.”

Trump said on Fox that U.S. forces had practiced their extraction on a replica building.

“They actually built a house which was identical to the one they went into with all the same, all that steel all over the place,” Trump said.

Trump said the U.S. operation took place in darkness, although he did not detail how that had happened. “The lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have,” Trump said. “It was dark and it was deadly.”

Trump described Maduro as being “highly guarded” in a presidential palace that was “a heavily fortified military fortress in the heart of Caracas.” Maduro had nearly made it to a safe room inside it, Trump told reporters, although “he was unable to close it.”

In an interview earlier Saturday morning on “Fox & Friends Weekend,” Trump said that American forces were armed with “massive blowtorches,” which they would have used to cut through steel walls had Maduro locked himself in the room.

“It had what they call a safety space, where it’s solid steel all around,” Trump told Fox. “He didn’t get that space closed. He was trying to get into it, but he got bum-rushed right so fast that he didn’t get into that. We were prepared.”

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Republished with permission of the Associated Press.